College of Nursing

Faculty Awards

Awards and Recognition 2012

Faculty Excellence Awards

Dr. Constance Ayers, Dr. Vi Ho, Dr. Rita DelloStritto, and Ms. Ann St. Germain of the College of Nursing Houston campus were recognized by the Good Samaritan Foundation at the Excellence in Nursing Luncheon. To view more information about the Excellence in Nursing Awards, click here [ppt].

Awards and Recognition 2011

Faculty Excellence Awards

Each recipient received $2000 this year though the generous endowment from TWU graduate Susan Cass Doroghazi, RN, MS, FNP.

Awards and Recognition 2003

Faculty Excellence Awards

Dr. Gail Davis has had her research grant "A Bone Health Educational Intervention for Older Adults in Residential Settings" approved by the Research Review Committee of the American Nurses Foundation. She has been designated as a Virginia Stone/ANF Scholar and the recipient of a year 2003 American Nurses Foundation grant.

Dr. Lene Symes, Dr. Ruth Grubesic and Dr. Ann Malecha have been selected as 3 of the 20 TNA, District 9 Outstanding Nurse Honorees for 2003. A Nursing Celebration honoring those selected was held Thursday, November 20th in Houston.

Dr. Kathryn Tart (nursing-Houston) has received two grants totaling nearly $90,000 to help retain nursing students and hire additional faculty. Dr. Tart received a $60,000 grant from Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Houston Northwest Medical Center to fund a nursing faculty position at the TWU Houston campus. Dr. Tart also received a $29,783 grant from the Greater Houston Partnership for the Nursing Student Retention Assistance Program. The grant funding will provide stipends to nursing students who are at risk of dropping out of school due to financial pressures.

Dr. Lene Symes (nursing-Houston) and Dr. Rebecca Krepper (nursing-Houston) received a $5,000 grant from the American Nurses Foundation for a project titled “Stressful Life Events Among New Nurses: Do They Predict Job Retention?” The study is designed to increase the understanding of stressful life events in the lives of nurses and whether the degree of the stress predicts retention one year after employment.

Dr. Michelle Cho (nursing-Dallas) received a $2,000 grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to study the comfort level of the new Papilla gown’s comfort vs. the traditional hospital gown for female breast cancer patients and whether the Papilla gown’s larger arm openings significantly lower the instance of lymphedema prior to patient discharge from the hospital.

Dr. Michelle Cho (nursing-Dallas) has been appointed a member of the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification of Korea by the South Korean government. Dr. Cho received the appointment because of her close ties in the Dallas/Fort Worth Korean community through health outreach programs and the leadership role she has taken in the D/FW Korean community.

Dr. Kathryn Tart (nursing-Houston) and Dr. Sally Northam (both nursing-Denton) have been awarded $297,739 for the “Nurse Educator Web-Technology Outreach Network,” a project that could help ease the state’s nursing crisis. The Nurse Educator Web-Technology Outreach Network (NEWTON) is designed to train nurses to become nursing instructors primarily through online courses. Nurses who want to teach can complete nearly two-thirds of their master’s or doctoral degrees, as well as post-master’s studies, online at TWU. Clinical coursework still will take place on campus, and the grant also provides for 24 stipends for nurses who might have some financial hardship in completing the clinicals or other courses.

Several TWU nursing faculty made presentations at the 27th Biennial Convention of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing, held Nov. 1-6 in Toronto, Canada. “A Collaborative Project Between Health Care Institutions, Schools/Colleges of Nursing, the Greater Houston Partnership, and Gulf Coast Workforce Board to Expand Undergraduate Student Entry Enrollment Using Loaned Clinical Experts as Faculty” was presented by Lucille Travis (interim dean, College of Nursing). “Developing and Implementing a Program That Enhances the Retention of Diverse Nursing Students Using Web-Based Courseware” was presented by Lene Symes (nursing-Houston), Kathryn Tart (nursing -Houston), Carolyn Adamson (nursing-Houston) and Lucille Travis. “HESI Exit Exam: Progression Benchmark and Remediation Guide” was presented by Ainslie Nibert (nursing-Houston) and Anne Young (nursing-Houston). “Nurse Behind the Limelight: Influence of Gesine Franke on Nursing and Nursing Education” was presented by Ho Soon Michelle Cho (nursing-Dallas) and Catherine Bailey (nursing-Dallas). Donna Bachand (nursing-Dallas) and Cynthia Hall (Houston graduate) served as delegates for the meeting of the House of Delegates. Sandra Cesario (nursing-Houston) served as an alternate delegate. Rebecca Krepper (nursing-Houston), past treasurer for Sigma Theta Tau International, assisted with the work of the Foundation. Connie Jennings (nursing-Houston) manned the TWU booth in the exhibit hall.

Dr. Sharon Van Sell and Dr. Judy Johnson-Russell (both nursing-Dallas) have been awarded $50,000 for the “Patient Simulation Laboratory Retention Project.” Senior-level undergraduate nursing students who are at risk for dropping out of the nursing program because of a learning anxiety while interacting with patients will participate in a patient simulation lab. The students will work with high-tech patient simulators to build their confidence, expand their knowledge and solidify their critical thinking skills. A variety of true-to-life scenarios, from heart attacks to giving birth, can be created using the patient simulators. The NIGP was established by the 77th Legislature to help relieve the state’s nursing shortage and is funded with proceeds from the Texas tobacco lawsuit settlement.

TWU Receives $155,000 From Memorial Hermann Healthcare - A $155,000 gift from Memorial Hermann Healthcare System to the Texas Woman’s University-Houston Center will help TWU address the state’s nursing shortage and support health science faculty development programs. “One of the critical concerns in addressing the state’s nursing shortage is having enough instructors to teach nursing students,” said TWU Chancellor Dr. Ann Stuart. “Memorial Hermann’s generosity will help TWU attract and retain nursing and other allied health program instructors.” The funding will be provided in 2003 and 2004 and is designated to support faculty development, recruitment and retention. Approximately 83 percent of the funding is earmarked for the College of Nursing and the balance is designated for the College of Health Sciences, which offers programs in health care administration, physical therapy, occupational therapy and nutrition.

Dr. Susan Chaney (nursing-Dallas) published a guest column, “Nurse Practitioners, A Critical Role” in the November 2003 issue of Pulse magazine.

Awards and Recognition 2002

Faculty Excellence Awards

The TWU Nursing Success Program has received the Texas Higher Education Star Award. The program has improved retention rates of at risk students from less than 50% to over 85%. Read more at nursingsuccessprogram.com.

Dr. Judith McFarlane, professor of nursing-Houston center, has been awarded $77,914 on a subcontract from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School on a grant from the National Institutes of Health from Sept. 1, 2002 to Aug. 31, 2003 for a project titled "Treatment Outcomes for Abused Women in Public Clinics." The project will be used to design, implement and test the efficacy of nurse case management and group education for African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian and Asian abused women attending inner city primary care clinics.

Dr. Lene Symes, assistant professor of nursing-Houston center, and Dr. Kathryn Tart, assistant professor of nursing-Houston center, have been awarded $5,000 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the period from Sept. 1, 2002 to Aug. 31, 2003 for a project titled the "Professional Nursing Incentive Grant Program." The goals of the project are to increase student retention with a nurse tutor who will guide students to learning strategies that enhance the likelihood they will learn pre-clinical course material, and to provide an experienced professional nurse mentor so that students will have an understanding of the professional nurse's role in health care before they enter clinical courses.

Dr. Judith McFarlane (professor of nursing-Houston) and Dr. Ann Malecha (assistant professor of nursing-Houston) have been awarded $254,322 by the National Institute of Justice for a project titled "Sexual Assault Among Intimates: Frequency, Consequences and Treatments." The analysis will compare the type and extent of intimate partner violence, physical and mental functional status and employment attendance of women reporting sexual assault compared to a similar group of women not reporting sexual assault. In addition, the psychosocial and school functioning of children living with a sexually assaulted mother will be compared to youngsters whose mother has not experienced sexual assault.

Dr. Lene Symes (nursing-Houston) and Dr. Suzanne Carr (nursing-Dallas) were awarded $163,016 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for a project titled “More Nurses for Texas: TWU Student Success Program for Vulnerable Students.” The project will expand a two-semester student retention program on the Houston campus to five semesters and implement the program on the Dallas Center.

Dr. Carolyn Gunning (nursing-Denton) was awarded a $164,168 grant by Health and Human Services for a project titled “Advanced Education Nursing Traineeships.” The traineeships will provide tuition and stipends to graduate nursing students.

Dr. Sandra Cesario (nursing-Houston) received $14,347 to carry out the final stages of data collection and analysis on a quantitative descriptive study surveying 500 randomly-selected hospital labor and delivery units throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. She will also do research on a quantitative correlational study looking at the attitudes and knowledge of nurses as indicators of preparedness to fulfill their professional roles in cases involving the abandonment of newborn children. Dr. Cesario also will devote time to a qualitative study interviewing women who are in prison for abandoning their newborns.